Of Obama’s Success and Africa’s Failure

Barrack Obama has indeed set a milestone in the history of the great union, the USA, but that’s just the beginning of the road. The Americans have played their part, they have shown their political and social maturity, by voting without considering race or colour, but credentials. Sincerely America is now a post racial country.

The Americans have at last skipped over a hindrance that had failed them for a long time, but that’s now history which should be rested down on the shelves where it belongs. The main issue now is whether Obama will practically deliver to the Americans, all that entails in the much sought for “change that they can believe in” or not. Time will tell that tale better, but as a president, he has a great challenge before him, the challenge of delivering.

His triumph was celebrated world wide. Truly, this shows the magnetism attached to his name, but it also is, a sign of high expectations from him. In Africa, the excitement was over whelming. In Kenya where he has his roots, every one is part of his triumph. This creates one issue that those that are jubilating should be warned about. They should not expect too much from him, while they are seated with their hands crossed. Things are not going to happen by miracle. He worked so hard to get there, but he has taken over an economy in shambles, he has un-resolved wars and conflicts, to mention but a few.

When, one of America’s most cerebrated presidents, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, said that “Americans should not ask what America can do for them, but they should ask for what they can do for America,” he must have been facing a situation of this sort.

I would thus like to pose it to some people too; they should not ask for what Obama will do for them, but what they can do together with him.

The African continent can jubilate because Obama whom they feel as one of their own, is the chief executive of the greatest nation on earth, but this won’t end the poverty, the wars, the tyranny and Aids in Africa, unless the Africans them selves get the will to save themselves. Do they have the will and courage to fight like Obama? Are they as emancipated emotionally as Obama is? Is he a true portrait of African social and political heritage? Now that one of Africa’s own sons has proved that Africans are capable of excelling in all fields whatever the  challenges are, its time for the African continent to come up and prove to the world that his rise was not a mare accident. It will be wrong to wait for him to save Africa, like Cinderella waited for the charming prince. Solely, Barrack Obama is not going to solve the African problems despite his African roots, because it’s not the Africans that voted him into power in the first place. He rose to power to solve the American problem and sincerely that will be his priority. If he ever does some thing for Africa, he should be appreciated, but never should Africa take him for granted.

After all, even long before an African American thought of becoming a president, the great Union has always been giving Africa a helping hand. But how much of it has been converted into real development? Obama’s coming into the white house does not necessarily imply an increase in what Africa should be getting from America. If it happens to increase, there will be a very good reason for it.

It’s not very easy to help some one who is not trying to help him self. Africa’s case can be compared to a person who is complacent about helping him self, but has great hope in his kith and kin helping him, and in the process he becomes a burden to them.

If Obama’s making it was a symbol of the African capabilities, then its time for the Africans to come of age and sort them selves out, so that when Obama gets down here, he can be as proud of them as they are of him. If they can’t come up with solutions, then they should not expect Obama to. They should blame them selves for not only letting them selves down, but also letting him down. It’s true that America is a land of opportunities, but it is not a country where you will “eat a lot of what you want to eat just because it’s your mother’s turn in the kitchen” (In Polygamous families, ladies cook in turns). You have to work hard to earn it. Africa has a lot of opportunities too, but the only problem is that, the “Obamas” that stayed down here in Africa are complacent.

Let me request the African brothers to do one small thing for Obama and Africa. Don’t Burden him with your problems, because you might fail him to deliver to the Americans. If you fail him, history shall be written, about which people can’t lead the great union, and yet on the other hand, if Africa gets sorted out now, it could be linked to Obama’s inspiration to his brothers.

I hope Africans wouldn’t like their kin in the USA to be labeled some thing like non performers. Another African American president in the future can have room for failing, but Obama doesn’t have it. It will be a very bad precedent.

One of the ways we can help him be a successful leader is to solve our problems, and clear our selves of that label of “failures” as a continent.